Nets’ Yi Jianlian targeted in age investigation

BEIJING (AP)—NBA player Yi Jianlian is being investigated by a Chinese-language magazine which claims he is one of many of the country’s athletes guilty of lying about their age on official documents.
Yi, who plays for the New Jersey Nets, has long been reported in the Chinese media to be older than his records show. Earlier this month, China’s Sports Ministry reported that it found 36 players in China’s professional basketball league whose dates of birth may have been changed.
The December issue of the Chinese-language edition of Sports Illustrated said a reporter for the magazine found records from Yi’s middle-school registration in his hometown in southern China that said he was born in 1984.
His official basketball records say he was born in 1987. He is also listed by the Nets as being born Oct. 27, 1987.
A spokesman for the Chinese Basketball Association could not be reached Monday for comment.
Yi could be quizzed again about his age on Monday night when the Nets face the Houston Rockets and fellow Chinese star center Yao Ming in New Jersey.
Players’ ages are sometimes altered to show them as being younger, mainly to qualify for youth tournaments. Those false ages stay with athletes and can result in embarrassment and sanctions when they move on to greater success.
The opposite practice was alleged in the controversy surrounding China’s gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team at the Beijing Olympics, where China entered athletes suspected of being below the minimum age of 16.
The international gymnastics federation eventually cleared the Chinese gymnasts of amending birth records to make athletes appear older than they were. However, it continues to investigate the ages of Chinese gymnasts who competed in the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Two bombs found on bus in southern Philippines

Two bombs were found on board a bus in the southern Philippines Tuesday, the latest incident in a spate of bombings and attempted bombings that have shaken the region, police said.
The bombs, made out of 60mm mortar shells with timing devices and hidden inside a carton, were found on a commuter bus in the city of Pagadian on the island of Mindanao, said provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Ramon Ochotorena.
A bus conductor spotted the bomb during a routine inspection of the vehicle just before it left the terminal.
A military explosives team disabled the bombs.
Ochotorena refused to speculate on who planted the bombs or whether they were connected to several bombing incidents in Mindanao in recent weeks.
Last week, bombs ripped through two department stores in Iligan City, killing two people and wounding at least 36. An unexploded bomb was found near the scene a day later.
Bombs have also exploded in the cities of Cotabato and Isulan, all in Mindanao, earlier this month.
Officials have blamed Muslim separatist guerrillas for some of the bombings but the rebels have denied the allegations.

Olympic bronze medal winner banned

Norwegian rider Tony Andre Hansen was on Monday banned for four and a half months and stripped of his Beijing Games bronze medal after his horse tested positive for a banned substance.
Hansen was one of four riders in the dock at the Olympics after their horses tested positive for capsaicin.
Monday's ban, which runs from August 21 to January 2 2009, disqualification and 3000 Swiss franc (1900 euros) fine were handed down by The International Equestrian Federation (EFI).
In a statement the EFI said: "The person responsable (the rider) is suspended for 135 days....Camiro and Tony Andre Hansen are disqualified from the Olympic Games and their results annulled."
Capsaicin, which can be rubbed in as a lotion to ease pain and is a derivative of the chilli pepper plant, showed up in four Beijing Games cases.
In addition to its painkilling properties capsaicin can increase sensitivity.
When smeared on the horses they suffer a burning sensation if they fail to clear the showjump bars, the idea being that they will strain themselves to jump higher and in doing so avoid the burning.
Hansen has 30 days in which to lodge an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Owen delays contract decision

England striker Michael Owen will not make a decision about his future with Newcastle United until the end of the season, a statement released by his agent said Monday.
While that means Owen, 29, will stay with Newcastle through the January transfer window, his long-term future remains uncertain when his current 103,000 pounds-a-week (153,969 dollars) deal expires at the season's end.
But the statement did say the former Liverpool and Real Madrid forward, who is now free to talk to other clubs from January 1, would consider a pay-cut if he decided to stay at St James' Park.
"Following speculation about my future at Newcastle United, I have decided today (Monday) to make it clear that I am committed to the club until at least the end of this season, and I have informed them I do not want to make a decision about my future until that time," club captain Owen said.
"I hope this will be seen as a positive step and not seen as being disloyal in any way.
"I am happy here and enjoy the challenge. It is simply a matter of seriously thinking about my future as I was 29 last week and my next career decision is a crucial one.
"My decision is not about money. I told the club some months ago that I would accept a reduction in my wages.
"I have no intention of leaving Newcastle United during the January transfer window and want to assure the fans that under Joe Kinnear's passionate management, I am committed with the rest of the players to ensure that the club ends the season on a high."
However, Owen has left open the possibility he may move to another team where he feels he has a greater chance of winning a trophy and so impressing England manager Fabio Capello, who has done without him in recent matches, even when the player has been fit.
If Owen was to leave at the end of the season, Newcastle would not receive a transfer fee on their highly-prized asset as he would be a free agent.
Kinnear, who offered the striker a new three-year contract last week, responded positively to Owen's comments.
"Michael told me in person about his decision and I fully understand where he is coming from," Kinnear explained to Newcastle's official website, www.nufc.co.uk.
"We have a great relationship as captain and manager and that will certainly continue. He is focused on scoring goals for Newcastle United and helping us keep progressing this season.
"Michael will consider his options in the summer but I am still optimistic that he will stay with us when it comes to making a decision."
He added: "In the meantime I have no doubts whatsoever that he will continue to give 100 percent.
"I'm looking forward to him continuing to score goals for us as they will be crucial in what we do for the rest of the season."
Newcastle did appear destined for relegation from the Premier League earlier this season but have risen up the table since Kinnear took charge following Kevin Keagan's exit and the caretaker spell at the helm of Chris Hughton.
Sunday's 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur left Newcastle four points above the relegation zone in 12th place.
Owen has scored 19 goals in 37 games this year but his time on Tyneside has been beset by injuries with his overall record for Newcastle now standing at 29 goals in 63 games.

Football: Terry sees red as Chelsea fail to go top

Chelsea captain John Terry was sent-off as the ten-man Blues failed to go top of the English Premier League after being held to a goalless draw away to Everton here Monday.

This result at Goodison Park saw Chelsea move to within a point of leaders Liverpool - Everton's city rivals topping the table at Christmas - and ended a run of 11 straight away league wins for the London club.

Chelsea played nearly an hour of the match a man down after England skipper Terry received a straight red card from referee Phil Dowd for a late and dangerous tackle on Everton midfielder Leon Osman.

But, despite the centre-half's expulsion 10 minutes before half-time, Everton - without a recognised striker because of injury - couldn't score and the draw saw them stay seventh in the table.

Everton did almost snatch victory late on when Steven Pienaar had a 'goal' disallowed by Dowd.

The South African midfielder bundled the ball over the line six minutes from time after Chelsea keeper Petr Cech had saved Osman's initial shot.

But having seemingly strayed into an offside position, Pienaar's goal was then chalked off after Dowd ruled that the ball had been kicked out of Cech's grasp, with the goalkeeper clearly having two hands on the ball.

"It's a tough place to come with 11 men," Cech told Setanta Sports. "We were down to 10, but we kept the ball and controlled the game quite well.

"They had the extra man so of course they had chances from set-plays but we can be satisfied.

"It's a pity we couldn't win. We could have been top of the league again but it's a good point."

Czech international Cech, asked about Terry's sending-off, added: "It's hard to say because I was far from it.

"It was hard for the ref to see what happened. He had a split second... he made a decision and we have to live with that."

Everton were without a recognised striker because of injury and manager David Moyes said: "We wanted the win even before the sending-off. We tried to get the goal and the players did everything we could ask.

"Obviously we are short of centre forwards and maybe that was the difference," he added.

Chelsea, who'd seen Liverpool drop points in a 1-1 draw away to Arsenal on Sunday, were going for a Premier League record of 12 straight away wins against an Everton side that had won just once on home turf all season.

Moyes again fielded Australia's Tim Cahill as the lone man up front after the midfielder had scored an injury-time winner at Manchester City last week.

Chelsea made the brighter start, though, and defender Ashley Cole saw a left foot volley pushed behind by United States goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Moyes's team, who suffered a dramatic 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa in their last outing at Goodison Park, responded well and captain Phil Neville's 25-yard effort forced Cech into a fine save.

Chelsea, with Nicolas Anelka once again keeping fellow striker Didier Drogba on the bench, struggled to make any headway against the home side.

Their frustration spilled over in the 35th minute when Terry committed the foul that saw him rightly sent-off by Dowd.

Terry was always up against it in his bid to beat Osman to the ball inside the Everton half and he mis-timed his tackle badly, catching his opponent on the leg in front of the referee and, for the second time this season, Chelsea's skipper found himself dismissed.

Had Everton been blessed with a full complement of strikers, a second-half onslaught on Chelsea's goal could have been expected.

But with their options limited, only a Marouane Fellaini header from Neville's cross, saved by Cech in the 53rd minute, was created by a cautious Everton before Pienaar's attempt.

Meanwhile an off-target 30-yard strike from Frank Lampard in the 75th minute was as close as Chelsea came to scoring.

Everton almost grabbed a winner when Fellaini's back-heel bounced just wide of the far post 10 minutes from the finish, but Chelsea somehow held out to claim what could ultimately prove to be a crucial point.

Philippine province tries to shake off its mafia image

Hemmed between mountains and a wide river, Abra is struggling to shake off its unwanted reputation as the Sicily of the Philippines, where warlords and political assassins are the only inhabitants making a killing.
The province of 250,000 people only has 88 prisoners, but they allegedly include some of the country's most notorious hired guns.
Eustaquio Bersamin visits the cemetery on weekdays and prays by his the grave of his brother, a local political kingpin who was assassinated as he left a church in December 2006.
"Before, I also thought about revenge," said the newly elected governor of the remote northern Philippines province of Abra.
But, he added, "we also want Abra to stand for something other than gunplay".
Here the going rate for a Mafia-style "hit" on a local politician was just 5,000 pesos (about 100 dollars) in last year's elections, according to people in the know.
"That is the house of a bodyguard of the former governor. Armed men knocked on his door and shot him dead during the election campaign," a local rental car driver said as he showed visitors the sights of the provincial capital.
Despite its natural beauty and rich mineral endowment, many people here live in poverty. Communist guerrillas operate in the lawless uplands, and some towns have been practically abandoned by their mayors, Bersamin said.
Abra's reliance on tax handouts from the national government has meant that public office often brings deadly consequences.
More than 20 people, including Luis Bersamin, the long-time legislator for the province who was shot dead outside a church in Manila, were murdered in the run-up to last year's vote.
"How can you attract tourists with all the shooting," asked his brother, who retired after 35 years in a civilian job at the Los Angeles sheriff's office in 2003.
He renounced his US citizenship last year and ran for public office here to try to bring order to the place.
He admits coming home was a culture shock, with voters so terrified of the political violence that candidates had to campaign from house to house.
The folksy, wisecracking governor told AFP that getting used to living under more or less permanent threat was a "big adjustment". Threats are phoned in anonymously, he said, and he moves around with armed bodyguards all the time.
His children, all now adults, are out of harm's way in the United States.
The governor says a key priority is improving the province's road network to help link upland farmers to markets, as well as attract foreign mining investors.
The province literally sits on gold, but only unregulated, small-scale miners and gold panners are in business -- paying no taxes.
"The indigenous people, they think they were taken advantage of before," he said by way of explaining local opposition to large-scale mining. He has recently approved two exploration permits involving two foreign companies.
The Tingguians, upland-dwelling tribes who make up 42 percent of the Abra population, rose in armed rebellion in the 1970s after late dictator Ferdinand Marcos allowed a paper mill to harvest timber from ancestral lands.
The mill eventually went bust and the rebels signed an armistice two decades ago, but some old habits die hard.
Two senior Abra state prosecutors went into hiding after receiving death threats in early November from a local politician. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez vowed to file charges and demanded the police assign them bodyguards.
Shops board up early in Bangued, the provincial capital, as they wait for their politicians to deliver.
"The situation is volatile," said Roman Catholic priest Father Cirilo Ortega, president of the province's oldest school, Divine Word College.
"The 2010 elections here will be bloody," said a local businessman, who would not be quoted by name.
He said he expects Bersamin to be challenged in his post by at least one of his erstwhile allies, and is concerned that the incumbent may not have the "firepower" to hold off his emerging rival.

Zimbabwe slams Bush's stance on Mugabe as "diplomatic flute"

Zimbabwe's government on Tuesday slammed US President George Bush's government's declaration of loss of confidence in President Robert Mugabe as a "diplomatic flute" by an outgoing administration.
"We have no time for US President George W. Bush's diplomatic flute. We are talking about an administration whose sun has set. Why bother?," Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said, according to state-run The Herald newspaper.
United States top US envoy for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said Sunday in South African capital Pretoria that Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal could not work with Mugabe as president.
"We have lost confidence in the power-sharing deal being a success with Mugabe in power. He has lost touch with reality," said Frazer, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
Frazer was in the South African capital to consult with regional leaders about the deteriorating political and economic crises in Zimbabwe, now also in the grip of a cholera epidemic that has already claimed more than 1,120 lives.
Mugabe is "completely discredited" and southern African leaders now want to know "how do they facilitate a return to democracy without creating a backlash like a military coup or some sort of civil war," she said.
The newspaper quoted Mugabe as describing Frazer as a "little girl" who was out of touch with reality in Zimbabwe and the rest of the world.
"There is this little girl called Jendayi Frazer. She was in South Africa recently making all sorts of noises. She thinks that Africans are idiots, litle kids who cannot think for themselves," Mugabe, 84, was quoted as saying last week in Bindura last week while opening his ruling ZANU-PF national conference.
Harare also has harsh words for the British government which has asked Mugabe to go.
Charamba said that Gordon Brown's administration was also on its way out in Britain and that the prime minister was trying to gain relevance back home through "posturing" on Zimbabwe, the newspaper said.

Basketball: Bonzi Wells scores 48 in China debut

Former NBA bad boy Bonzi Wells scored 48 points and snared 11 rebounds in his Chinese league debut, helping the Shanxi Zhongyu to a 107-106 win over Tianjin.
Wells shot 17-37 from the floor, including 5-15 three-pointers, and had seven steals in Sunday's game, giving his new club a glimpse of how the 10-year NBA veteran can help them in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) season.
"I was really nervous before the game and I was only thinking about turning my nerves into energy," Wells said through a Chinese translator.
"I never thought that today I would score 48 points," he said. "That is not my normal style."
Wells averaged 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds in his NBA career, spent with Memphis, Sacramento, Houston and the Portland Trail Blazers -- who became known as the "Jail Blazers" for their frequent run-ins with the law.
In Shanxi, he is teaming up with former NBA coach Bob Weiss, hoping to boost Shanxi's chances of escaping their last-place finish in the 2007-2008 season.
Shanxi is currently in seventh place (9-7) but Wells is expected to turn the club into one of the CBA's elite.
Wells played 45 minutes on Sunday night. Last season, each team's two foreign players were only allowed to play a total of 60 minutes a game, but this year both foreigners can play the entire game.
Besides Wells, four-year NBA guard Kirk Snyder, former Indiana center David Harrison and one-time Golden State Warrior Chris Porter are just a few of several Americans playing in China.